Michael Covel interviews Neil Pasricha. Neil is author of the New York Times best seller, “The Happiness Equation.” He is also author of the popular blog, “1,000 Awesome Things.” Neil brings great insights on finding happiness and staying positive.

Neil starts the podcast sharing how his success started. During his first years of gaining notoriety for teaching about happiness, he actually wasn’t happy himself. He was going through a divorce, hardly sleeping, and still working a full time job at Wal-Mart management. His creative output was nothing. He ended up falling in love with a women and that ended up shifting his thinking. He went from observing awesome things, which he is probably most known for, to the application of integrating those awesome things into your life, such as “How do you live a happier life?” “The Happiness Equation” started as notes to Neil’s unborn son. He essentially wanted to write down everything he wanted him to know about life.

Neil details some of his techniques on how he starts writing a book. He is a huge believer of “the note card system.” For a few years he carried note cards around and wrote down any thoughts or tidbits that he would see during the day that were interesting. This is a great example of placing action before motivation which is critical to reaching goals. Neil says that taking small steps is the key to success. Michael brings the conversation back to Neil’s book and happiness. The first thing that pops up on Google search when you type in “how to be” is “how to be happy.” Everyone wants to be happy but they are struggling, searching, stressed, and looking for balance.

The traditional way of thinking is, “Study hard, get good grades, and you will be happy.” Neil says that you should flip that upside down and work on; being happy, then doing great work, and then you will have big success. All studies show that choosing to be happy above all other things leads to a better life. The healthiest societies in the world do not have retirement. Instead they focus on loving what they do throughout life. People need to have a challenge and a way to stimulate the mind and body. Retirement, for most, tends to put an abrupt halt to those things. Michael ends with taking quotes from Neil’s book and having him elaborate.